| Author |
Message |
    
Leif Persson
Member
Username: leif
Post Number: 1
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, November 20, 2004 - 12:11 am: | 
|
Hello,
My name is Leif, I live in sweden. I have in my possession an old chest, possibly a seamans-chest. Recently I found a fragment of a note and a few stickers on it. On one very torn piece of paper/note, attached to the chest by a string reads:
ISSUED BY
GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY SYSTEM
(WESTERN L*******)
AL******** ?
The AL*** part is a guess on my part. And what it says after WESTERN is also hard to read. My guess would be "London", but thats very uncertain. There are two stickers on the chest which reads:
WHITE STAR LINE
(NEW YORK)
****ECKED BAGGAGE
respectively:
WHITE STAR LINE
*FOR*** BAGGAGE
A last sticker, in very bad shape, possibly reads:
Ingels****
There are Swedish surnames like Ingelström, Ingelstad, etc, it could be something like that.
1865 the White Star Line between Liverpool and New York opened and, especially, at that time emigrants from Sweden often went to Canada. The fellow with this chest obviously made it back home to Sweden again.
If you have any further clues to this chests adventure I would be very interested in hearing from you. Maybe you know someone I could contact.
Sincerely,
Leif |
Noel F.Jones
Member
Username: ver1tas
Post Number: 338
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, November 20, 2004 - 3:00 am: |
|
As far as I can ascertain the Grand Trunk Railway was extant in various forms between 1856 and 1923 when it became the Canadian National Railway under government auspices.
The residue of "****ECKED BAGGAGE" could possibly be "CHECKED BAGGAGE"
As for "*FOR*** BAGGAGE": no vowel fits before "FOR..." in the English language. Could this word be "Forward" in the sense of advance baggage?
"WESTERN LONDON" is highly improbable in any sense. The expression is not in common use apropos London and its juxtaposition as you describe it would not make any sense.
Sorry I can't be more helpful.
Noel |
Lester Mitcham
Member
Username: lester
Post Number: 722
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Saturday, November 20, 2004 - 4:14 am: |
|
GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY SYSTEM (WESTERN L*******) - At a guess I would think L*** = Line.
I have never heard of a Grand Trunk Railroad system in the UK [sounds American/Canadian].
Charles Hays [a victim of the Titanic disaster] was President of the "Canadian" Grand Trunk Railroad.
So again a guess. - The "western line" [?] of the Grand Trunk Railroad in Canada. |
Leif Persson
Member
Username: leif
Post Number: 2
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, November 20, 2004 - 12:16 pm: |
|
Thanks, Checked or even rechecked baggage makes sense. Forward is possible, there need not be any letter prior to -for- and after -for- a piece of the sticker is missing, there is no way to tell. The western line is possible, but the it continues with on***, does Western Line Ontario make sense or would that be wrong word order? There is room for seven letters, one might just be a blank, L*** ON, after the note is too torn to make anything more out of it.
//Leif |
Bob Godfrey
Member
Username: bobgod1
Post Number: 1846
Registered: 11-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, November 20, 2004 - 12:27 pm: |
|
London (Ontario) could make sense - important place on the western section of the Grand Trunk. A little further west was a branch line to Alvinston - could that be the word which begins with Al? |
